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I don't know why I keep going back to look at these photos. Perhaps because it is a puffy building (never thought I would use those two words together), or that there are some very cool patterns generated.

Auntie Amanda had the more reasonably portioned teriyaki chicken udon. We ordered way too much food and had to take most of the gyozas home. Funny that we were thinking we would have a small lunch by going here. It was all good and tasty, and very much worth it's value.

I am being finicky about my chocolate chip cookies. After trying different recipes for many years, including the one in Cooks Illustrated with the brown butter, I was dumbfounded as to how none of them was able to achieve ultimate chocolate chip cookie status. Sure they were good cookies, but not super good. Super good meaning crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, with a strong caramel aroma and a good chips to cookie ratio.

I may have finally found the secret to the ultimate chocolate chip cookie, and it lies within a recipe that I got for free from a cooking school in Victoria, BC.

Compared to most recipes, this one has less flour, more baking soda and a higher cooking temperature. Which means these cookies are less cake-y, spread more, and sugars caramelize into gooeyness. Also, I prefer to add nuts to my cookies because it makes them smell better when they are baking and it adds a good crunch contrast to the chewiness.

One other thing that I discovered is the colour of the cookie sheet will change the outcome. Even with using a Silpat (Silicone mat) the darker coloured cookie sheet produced a great crunchy bottom, where the aluminum one didn't. (Dark colour attracts more heat.)

And because you will need this recipe also...

Super Good Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 to 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (depending on how much you want to chip, I like one cup)

1 cup chopped walnuts

* to make double chocolate cookies add 1/3 cup cocoa powder

Heat oven to 375F.

Cream butter and both sugars, beat in eggs and vanilla until creamy.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Blend into butter mixture, stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop slightly smaller than golf ball sized dough balls onto baking sheet. (I line mine with Silpat out of habit, but an unlined one will do.)

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack. They will look undercooked, but that's what you need to achieve gooeyness. They will continue to cook a bit more as they cool.

What do we eat around here? We like to eat everything! And if I can use Rice Krispies at dinner time, I will. This time they were used to crust a rack of lamb.

I crushed them first so they are disguised as bread crumbs. Looks fancy but it was actually quite easy to make.

A meat thermometer is a must to achieve the desired doneness.

Castle had two chops. It was a dinner success.

Recipe for Rice Krispies crusted Rack of Lamb Success

1 lamb rack (ours had 8 ribs)

Dijon Mustard

Crust:

1/2 cup Rice Krispies, crushed

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp dried herbs - rosemary and oregano are my go to choices

1 tbs olive oil

Preheat oven to a hot 450F, put rack in the middle.

Mix all the ingredients for the crust together on a plate.

Heat a pan on high heat.

Dry your lamb rack with paper towel, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Add oil to hot pan and sear lamb rack on all sides, 2 minutes per side.

Take lamb rack off and smear dijon all over, this will help the crust stick.

Roll lamb rack in crust.

Bake lamb rack on baking sheet until internal temperature reaches your desired doneness. Ours is 135F, medium rare in the middle and medium on the outer parts. For this 8 rib rack it took 18 minutes. Timing is everything and each piece of meat will be different due to size, so it is best to use a thermometer.

First there was the Castle being sick thing. See the lovely crusties around his nose. Then there was the unfortunate incident of food poisoning. X2 I might add. We've had a lounge around party for two days.

We did, however, managed to go to the library to pick out some new books. Andrew especially loves the Stompin' Tom Connors one. He said that it is Castle's new favourite, he would like to think that.

Not letting us down is Mr. Sunshine. It was rain/snowing not an hour ago but now it's sunny! I usually rejoice when it's sunny in Vancouver. We are on the mend now and hopefully we will all be back to our normal selves for some weekend fun.